Sweet Corn Insect Pest Management

Sweet corn is grown for fresh and processing markets and is valued at about $70 million annually in New York. Because sweet corn is usually rotated with other vegetables, it is not subject to major pressure from corn rootworms. The main pests of sweet corn are cutworms, the seedcorn maggot , wireworms, corn leaf aphid and the lepidopteran complex of the European corn borer, corn earworm and fall armyworm. Traditionally, the European corn borer has been the major pest but it is now being overshadowed by the migratory corn earworm which is arriving earlier in the season and in higher numbers. There is also some evidence that some populations of corn earworm have evolved resistance to the commonly used pyrethroid insecticides.

Listed below are a few of our publications in this area (see complete publication list above).